1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a vibrator element, and an electronic device, an electronic apparatus, and a moving object using the vibrator element, and a method of manufacturing the vibrator element.
2. Related Art
For small-sized information equipment such as a mobile computer or an IC card, mobile communication equipment such as a cellular phone, and vehicle control and a vehicle position detection, a vibration control correction function (so-called image stabilization) for digital cameras or digital video camera, and so on, vibrators using a vibrator element and gyro sensors are used widely. For example, the gyro sensor detects an electric signal, which is generated in a part of a gyro vibrator element (a gyro vibrating element) due to a vibration such as a tremor or a rotation of an object, as an angular velocity using the gyro vibrating element, and then obtains the displacement of the object by calculating the rotational angle.
In the gyro sensor, there is widely used the gyro element formed of a piezoelectric material such as quartz crystal (see, e.g., JP-A-2006-184176 (Document 1)). The vibrator element (vibrating element) described in Document 1 is a so-called H-type gyro element including a base section made of quartz crystal, a pair of detection vibrating arms and a pair of drive vibrating arms each extending from respective end portions of the base section in parallel to each other. The detection vibrating arms of the gyro element are each provided with a through hole. Further, on each of two side surfaces of the through hole and two side surfaces (outer side surfaces) of the detection vibrating arm, there are disposed detection electrodes separated from each other.
In the gyro element as the vibrator element described above, the detection electrodes separated from each other are formed each of the two side surfaces of the through hole and the two side surfaces (the outer surfaces) of the detection vibrating arm formed so as to be roughly perpendicular to the obverse and reverse surfaces of the detection vibrating arm. The detection electrodes separated from each other can easily be formed using, for example, a photolithography method. However, since the electrode film to be divided is disposed on the side surface formed roughly perpendicularly to the obverse and reverse surfaces of such a detection vibrating arm as described above, it has been difficult to use a simple manufacturing device such as a so-called plane exposure device for irradiating the obverse and reverse surfaces of the detection vibrating arm with light in a vertical direction in the exposure process for forming separation sections.